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Need to Reach Out

As a Clinton resident who believes in good government, I must respond to Clinton Town Council member Carol Walter’s March 18 letter [“We Speak Through the Chair”]. Her letter dodged defending her duplicitous vote, focusing instead on how her words were accurately reported by this newspaper.

Walter says she voted against the proposed education budget because it included wage increases and no cuts in personnel. This explanation would work had Walter, a town employee, voted “No” for the town budget, which cuts no staff and includes wage increases benefiting her. Outrageous.

Perhaps even more outrageous is that she and Council Chair Chris Aniskovich believe the Town Council should operate like a corporate board, with only the chair speaking for the council.

“[W]e speak through the chair and we speak as a collective unit,” Walter wrote. No! We elected individual council members to represent us, not just the chair. The chair is not the gate keeper of thought.

Chair Chris Aniskovich says he would like to hold an event to discuss Clinton’s new form of town government “sooner, rather than later” [March 18 story “Clearing the Air on Town Manager, Town Council Roles”]. I respectfully request Aniskovich up his game, set a date for the clear-the-air meeting, and get something done.

Telling voters, “The town manager is doing an outstanding job,” isn’t good enough. Leaders need to reach out to the public and lay out the town’s plan to sell Pierson Elementary School, open a senior center (an established service in all surrounding towns), and, with the town manager, reorganize town government to meet today’s demands.

John Olsen

Clinton